The Complete Jewish Study Bible comes to us with the theme of “Insights for Jews & Christians” and the goal of “Illuminating the Jewishness of God’s Word.” What a treasure this provides in one volume – something I’ve been hoping for since my husband bought me The Complete Jewish Bible and separate commentary, which I reviewed a few years ago.
This hardback edition published by Hendrickson Bibles, who kindly sent me a copy to review, offers “Features Unique to The Complete Jewish Study Bible” (CJSB) such as “New Bible Book Introductions” from a Jewish perspective and “Study Notes” in the bottom margins “to help readers understand the deeper meanings behind the Jewish text.”
Additionally, over 100 color-coded articles in sidebars throughout the text focus on these twelve significant themes:
Anti-Jewish Scriptural Interpretations
Covenant
Jewish Customs
Jewish-Gentile Relatons
Messianic Prophecy
The Name of God
The Sabbath (Shabbat)
Salvation and Atonement
The Holy Days of Israel
The Land of Israel
Torah
The Tabernacle (Mishkan)
In his introduction, translator and scholar David H. Stern, who provided us with this biblical text in English, begins by asking “Why is this Bible different from all other Bibles?” bringing to mind a traditional question, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” asked by the youngest person at the Passover Seder.
And why is this Bible different? The CJSB “restores the Jewish unity of the Bible,” giving Messianic Jews the opportunity to see Jesus’ Jewishness in the New Covenant and Christians a fuller view of Jesus in the Torah.
For example, a footnote to Genesis 2:15 comments on the phrase “To cultivate and care for it” as coming from “The Hebrew word for ‘work,’ avodah,” which “is the same for ‘manual labor’ and ‘worshipping God.’ The picture we see here of the human’s work is that it was also a form of worship.”
To give you an example of the importance of Jewish insight into the New Testament, Nicodemus was more confused by Jesus statement “You must be born again” in John 3:3 than most of us Christians ever realized. According to Pharisaic Judaism, a person had six ways to be born again:
Converting to Judaism
Becoming bar mitzvah
Marrying
Being ordained as a rabbi
Heading a rabbinical school
Being crowned king
Since (Nicodemus) “Nakdimon had gone through every process available in Judaism to being ‘born again’….” Jesus (Yeshua) had “the opportunity to explain some spiritual truths to this already ‘born again’ teacher of Is’rael, primarily that he still needed to be spiritually ‘born again’.”
I would be delighted to give you more and more examples of how the CJSB blesses readers who love God’s Word, but I pray you’ll see for yourself. Since I'm posting this review on the last day of National Bible Week, it's a great time to find out!
Mary Harwell Sayler, poet-writer, reviewer
The Complete Jewish Study Bible, hardcover
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Reviews study Bibles, new translations, large print editions, children's Bibles, commentaries, and other Bible resources
Showing posts with label David Stern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Stern. Show all posts
November 19, 2016
June 15, 2013
The Complete Jewish Bible
If you have an edition of the Bible with cross-referencing to indicate the connections between the Old Testament (OT) and the New, you have probably noticed how Jesus fulfills prophecies and embodies the Word of God – literally and figuratively – in His own being. This translation of the Bible not only emphasizes that but helps us to understand the Jewish family of God to which Jesus belonged and of which Christianity is close kin.
As the translator of this fine work, David Stern explains in the Introduction, “I wanted to produce a single book that would deal with all the ‘Jewish issues’ I could think of in connection with the New Testament – questions that Jews have about Yeshua (Jesus), the New Testament, and Christianity; questions Christians have about Judaism and the Jewish roots of their own faith; and questions we Messianic Jews have about our own identity and role in the light of two thousand years of separation and conflict between the Church and the Jews.” Before bringing us the Complete Jewish Bible, however, he wrote the Jewish New Testament Commentary, which I viewed on Amazon and immediately added to my Wish List.
Special Features: In addition to introducing us to the translator’s Jewish background before he became a seminary-trained Messianic Jew in Israel, the Introduction describes the 7 sections of the Bible with the Hebrew scriptures arranged in the sequence Jesus would have known with their original Hebrew names:
The Torah (the Pentateuch or first five books of the Bible which reveal and express God’s law or will)
The Prophets (early and late with most of the historical books included in this section as in the Jewish canon)
The Writings (wisdom literature with the remaining historical books such as Ruth and Chronicles)
The Gospels (Mattityahu/ Matthew, Mark, Luke, Yochanan/John)
The Acts of the Emissaries (of Jesus aka Apostles)
The Letters (to the early churches or Greek and Jewish Christian communities who met in common-union)
Revelation
The Introduction also includes 4 pages of Hebrew prophecies fulfilled in Christ and gives us a peek inside a Jewish synagogue such as Jesus would have regularly attended.
Other Special Features include a Glossary in the back of the book with a pronunciation guide and maps with their true Hebrew names (“Natzeret” instead of the Anglicized “Nazareth” or “Yerushalayim” for “Jerusalem.”) Several blank pages follow with room for “Notes.”
Covers, Size, Font: My copy of the Complete Jewish Bible is slightly smaller than the one I found on Amazon (see ad below), but both have a hardback cover unless you prefer the Kindle edition, also available on Amazon. The font might have changed with the newest edition too, but my copy has a thin but readable font with a little less ink than I prefer. However, the many, many OT scriptures quoted in the New Testament have been set in bold type for easy identification and emphasis, offering us frequent reminders of our spiritual roots and connections to one another in the Family of God.
©2013, Mary Harwell Sayler welcomes review copies of new translations of Holy Scriptures into English, new study editions, new children’s Bibles, and new treatments of older translations of the Bible. May God bless this work and that of David Stern, who saw a schism in God’s family and wanted to do what he could to resolve this as a “contribution to tikkun-ha’olam (repairing the world.)” Amen! and Shalom.
Complete Jewish Bible
Jewish New Testament Commentary
~~
As the translator of this fine work, David Stern explains in the Introduction, “I wanted to produce a single book that would deal with all the ‘Jewish issues’ I could think of in connection with the New Testament – questions that Jews have about Yeshua (Jesus), the New Testament, and Christianity; questions Christians have about Judaism and the Jewish roots of their own faith; and questions we Messianic Jews have about our own identity and role in the light of two thousand years of separation and conflict between the Church and the Jews.” Before bringing us the Complete Jewish Bible, however, he wrote the Jewish New Testament Commentary, which I viewed on Amazon and immediately added to my Wish List.
Special Features: In addition to introducing us to the translator’s Jewish background before he became a seminary-trained Messianic Jew in Israel, the Introduction describes the 7 sections of the Bible with the Hebrew scriptures arranged in the sequence Jesus would have known with their original Hebrew names:
The Torah (the Pentateuch or first five books of the Bible which reveal and express God’s law or will)
The Prophets (early and late with most of the historical books included in this section as in the Jewish canon)
The Writings (wisdom literature with the remaining historical books such as Ruth and Chronicles)
The Gospels (Mattityahu/ Matthew, Mark, Luke, Yochanan/John)
The Acts of the Emissaries (of Jesus aka Apostles)
The Letters (to the early churches or Greek and Jewish Christian communities who met in common-union)
Revelation
The Introduction also includes 4 pages of Hebrew prophecies fulfilled in Christ and gives us a peek inside a Jewish synagogue such as Jesus would have regularly attended.
Other Special Features include a Glossary in the back of the book with a pronunciation guide and maps with their true Hebrew names (“Natzeret” instead of the Anglicized “Nazareth” or “Yerushalayim” for “Jerusalem.”) Several blank pages follow with room for “Notes.”
Covers, Size, Font: My copy of the Complete Jewish Bible is slightly smaller than the one I found on Amazon (see ad below), but both have a hardback cover unless you prefer the Kindle edition, also available on Amazon. The font might have changed with the newest edition too, but my copy has a thin but readable font with a little less ink than I prefer. However, the many, many OT scriptures quoted in the New Testament have been set in bold type for easy identification and emphasis, offering us frequent reminders of our spiritual roots and connections to one another in the Family of God.
©2013, Mary Harwell Sayler welcomes review copies of new translations of Holy Scriptures into English, new study editions, new children’s Bibles, and new treatments of older translations of the Bible. May God bless this work and that of David Stern, who saw a schism in God’s family and wanted to do what he could to resolve this as a “contribution to tikkun-ha’olam (repairing the world.)” Amen! and Shalom.
Complete Jewish Bible
Jewish New Testament Commentary
~~
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